The Tower

Time has passed in this place that I inhabit, and the décor of the hallway of beginnings has started to change in small ways. This is something that I have noticed before, but it really has started to make an impact on me now. The wooden stairway remains unchanged; nothing is different there, the steps still calmly glowing, although I have never set eyes upon the house keeper that polishes them so carefully. The doors are different though, and I definitely sense that some of them have disappeared altogether, but at the same time that new ones have appeared. There is a large plain door on the landing that I have never noticed before, it is 3 doors down from the tarot door, and I wonder if perhaps it is another world that I need to explore in the future, another dimension of understanding, different to my Thoth understanding…. perhaps another deck, of which there are now two, waiting patiently on the shelf. I leave this thought, leave it waiting, along with the memory of a very small and insignificant door, that I have seen quite recently, down at the far end of the hallway… in a place that used to have a sideboard standing there. It looks rather shabby and unused, and could very well be a door to some ancient cellar, but I will leave that idea too, for now, because the day has finally come when I must enter the realm of The Tower, and to discover the power that lies there.
I don’t remember climbing the stairs… it all goes in a kind of dream, and I arrive at the door with a strangely familiar feeling…the powerful sense that I have taken a whole lifetime to get to this place, but yet that I have been standing here for an eternity, poised on the brink of annihilation, and yet holding the seeds of the universe in my arms. With acceptance, and readiness to give myself up to whatever may happen, I step through the door.
Surprised and fearful at the difference to my expectations, I walk into a still and silent landscape, not filled with fire and brimstone as I had thought, but a place of stillness, solitude and suspension.
I see The Tower…it is difficult to avoid, as it is so large that it fills my entire vision. It is not hugely tall, but it is very wide and has a very solid looking foundation… but what surprises me most about it, is its age. It appears to be centuries old, and reminds me immediately of the relic of a lost civilisation that one might find deep in the jungles of some Rider Haggard novel. Bound with creepers and inhabited by creatures of all kinds, this Tower is not only a structure that has outlived its purpose, but one that has also taken on a whole new life of its own. It seems to be supporting a vast ecosystem of dependents which reside within its rotten and crumbling walls, and the whole edifice chills me with its ancient slumbering power.
As I stand looking at it, wondering what to do next, I see a golden glow forming behind the Tower, which as I look, slowly begins to solidify more and more until finally it has formed into the image of a strange golden creature, half lion, a griffin perhaps, that ancient symbol of the sun, that bears wisdom, vengeance, strength, and salvation, on its glistering golden wings.
My vision becomes filled with the image of the Griffin, and the one become many, and all of a sudden I am filled with a sense of golden light, and I am transported away from the Tower, and find myself on the back of a white horse, that is thundering along the wide golden sands of Patara beach. Huge waves are crashing in on the gently shelving sands, and they are filled with a multitude of coloured lights. The bright summer sunlight is shining through the waves, which are creating a natural prism, and the shore is filled with the colours of the rainbow. The sight of this beautiful phenomena fills me with power and beauty, the fluidity of change, the force of emotion, the endlessness of love…… and it will be my strength and my salvation.
As I am filled with the vision in front of my eyes, another shape takes form, further away. The white foam from the sea is shifting, changing, building and forming, and gradually I make out a white creature, who steps forth from the depths….. a horse, an emissary of Poseidon, lord of earthquakes, ruler of the Sea. He stands in my way and blocks my path….. it is time to attend to The Tower.
It stands, as it has done for centuries….. I see it now for what it is, not a place of safety anymore, that purpose has long gone, it is not something I use, it just fills a place in the landscape, an incongruous relic of times and lives past. It is not even a museum piece that needs to be catalogued and filed like some valuable artifact, but a worn out husk, to be consigned for demolition, to be broken down, recycled, reformed, to be scattered to the four winds and set free into the universe.
As I look at it, I am aware of the power behind me, the power required to cleanse this space, to bring The Tower down….. and I am afraid.
I can feel the dread behind me, for I know now what is there…. It is the stuff of my darkest nightmares, the unspeakable terror of a child alone in the darkness, confronted by all the evils of the hidden realms, and a voice that cannot be heard.
As I finally turn to face to embrace my weapon, I am mesmerized by the terrible beauty of what I can see. An enormous wave of translucent aquamarine blue, rises in the clear sunlight…… it is catastrophic in its power…. it is far taller than the tower behind me, and there is no doubt in my mind that it will sweep it, and all its inhabitants into a sweet and silent oblivion, I am just deeply concerned that I will not survive the deluge. The Wave is gathering momentum, it is traveling fast now, and time has slowed to an eternity, as millisecond by millisecond, my life moves before my eyes, as I let go one by one of all the memories, events and emotions that are being held prisoner in that rotting and useless edifice. I gaze up at the tip of the wave, the edge has become transparent now, as clear as glass, and the sunlight shines through the thinning wall of water, toppling it, unraveling its power, as I teeter on the edge of oblivion………and I am washed away into darkness.

Broken and bleeding, in severe pain, but thankfully still here, I am wrecked upon a golden sandy beach, the sea is as calm as molten glass…… and the landscape is empty. I lie there in the Sun…. it is all I am aware of really… just the warmth, seeping into my bones, bringing me life, comforting me.
After a while, as the sensation starts to return to my limbs, I am aware of something in my hand, and I sit up to examine what it is. I look down at a grizzled and scarred oyster shell, containing the dead remains of the oyster. I clear out what is left, for I know what I will find, and I reveal the treasure lying there, softly glowing like the moon, in its own little world, a beautiful shining pearl.

The Tower XVI

The Lord of the Hosts of The Mighty

Planetary Trump of Mars

“Break down the fortress of thine Individual Self, that thy Truth may spring free from the ruins!”

Thank you Melissa, I am glad that you found it a fruitful contemplation. On re reading it again, I do think that this was one of my best to date… and the ghost that it finally laid to rest was about 20 years old… it is a truly magical process. X